The best Witcher 3 mods

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best PC RPGs of all time, so the thought of modding it sometimes feels like garnishing a kingly steak with corner store-grade sauce. But the best Witcher 3 mods really do make for an even better game—or at least a more convenient or different game, which is welcome in your second or third adventure through the Northern Realms.

Below you'll find our list of the best mods for The Witcher 3, updated for a new playthrough in 2018 or beyond. Since its original release, modders have figured out how to do more with CD Projekt's RED's tools, and the best Witcher 3 mods make some pretty drastic changes to combat, loot, graphics, and more. Unless otherwise noted, all of these mods should work with the last Witcher 3 patch, version 1.31.

Table of contents

Utilities

If you’re going to be tinkering around with a lot of mods, you’re going to need the god-like powers of the debug console behind you. This little mod unlocks the debug console, letting you use console commands to change settings, spawn enemies, fix broken things, etc.

All of the Witcher mods live on Nexus, and the Nexus Mod Manager is the single best way to wrangle all the competing and conflicting changes that mods might be bringing to your game. While you’re installing mods, pay attention to warnings about conflicts and load orders. If you do see a specific load order, the NMM is where you go to make that change. Otherwise incompatible mods could work perfectly if you load one before the other.

If you are installing a lot of mods, do it just like your mother taught you: go slow, take it easy, and say your prayers.

Did you know that there’s a “mod limit”? It was news to us. If you are trying to install more mods than the game wants to allow, the Mod Merger can help. The process will take about 15 minutes, but basically the merger will combine your compatible mods into a single customized bundle just for you. Too many mods? No no, sir, as you can see, I am installing only one enormous mod.

As above, be careful with this one. Only spend the time to merge mods you know work well together, otherwise you’ll end up doing the whole process over and over.

Menu and travel

Mods that expedite your journey, clean up your UI and make Dandelion shut the hell up.

Fast Travel from Anywhere

Geralt's world already has dozens of signposts for fast travel, but sometimes you'll still find yourself spending ages coaxing Roach across countryside for the nearest one. If you're not down for that sometimes humdrum bit of roleplay, this mod lets you teleport to any fast travel point from anywhere, much in the style of Skyrim. If that doesn’t sound fun to you, let us suggest the exact opposite: this mod will cancel all fast travel routes, except for a few that hop between regions.

Use your new fast travel abilities with caution and don't get too hasty: overriding the existing system reportedly causes problems with a tiny number of quests. This one isn’t being updated anymore, so it does have some issues with newer mods. When all else fails, try to resolve conflicts with the mod merger.

All Quest Objectives on Map

While it’s nice that the map isn’t thickly cluttered with icons like some sort of Ubisoft-produced hellscape, trying to remember where the herbalist is can be pretty annoying. This mod adds every map icon to the map all the time, including nearby merchants and any quest objective for any quest in your journal. If it’s too much, you can always customize and hide any markers you don’t need.

Additional Stash Locations

Your Stash is accessible from a few places around the world, but this mod asks: Why not more? Installing this will add eight new stash locations and relocate two of the standard stash locations to more convenient areas. This is especially handy if you’re using a realism mod that adds carry weight to money.

Preparations Mod

One of the best parts of the early Witcher game is feeling like you need to do your homework before any big contract. You brew up Specter oil for the first time and make sure you’re stocked up on Moon dust, you meditate, and you sharpen your silver sword.

This mod recaptures some of that old magic by making meditation a more meaningful process. You need to meditate to spend points in your skill tree, refill alchemical items and oils, and repair items. By default, eating and drinking during combat isn’t allowed with this mod, so you really need to make sure you’re all set before the Noonwraith hits the windmill.

Friendly Meditation

If Preparations Mod sounds like more trouble than fun, check out Friendly Meditation. You still get all the potion refilling benefits of vanilla meditation, but you don’t have to look at a boring ol’ menu. Instead, the HUD falls away and you get a nice view of the clouds zipping past, the stars rotating, and the sun rising over the mountains.

Sometimes, a Witcher just needs to take a damn minute, you know? Just don’t forget the Unification patch on this one.

Friendly HUD

The Witcher 3's UI can feel a bit cluttered, but turning parts of it off can make the game overly difficult. This mod has several features, available in separate downloads if you only want one or two, that improve the on-screen issues. From holding a key down to enter meditation without using the menu, to hiding quest markers unless you're using your Witcher sense, plus HUD elements that can individually be toggled on and off without having to open your menu, and lots more.

Lamp on Player's Boat

Is it a big deal? No. But it sure does look nice. This mod adds a little hanging lamp to your little sailboat. Adorable. Look at that Witcher go.

Disable Storybook Videos

Some of us—we’re not naming names or anything—would be happy to feed Dandelion and his stupid mouth into a woodchipper. Since there are no woodchippers in the Northern Kingdoms, this mod that disables those storybook narration videos that you have to listen to over and over again will have to do.